Today, President Trump issued an executive order further restricting immigration in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic.? This order extends the previous restrictions on new immigrant visas through the end of the year and adds certain nonimmigrant visa classifications to the list.

The new executive order will restrict new H-1B, H-2B, J, or L visas, and any dependents accompanying or following to join individuals in those classifications, which includes H-4 and L-2 spouses.? The order goes into immediate effect.

Individuals who hold valid H-1B, H-2B, J, or L visas as of today will be allowed to enter the U.S. This order will not impact our ability to file changes of status, extensions of status, change of employer petitions, adjustments of status, or amendments for those who are currently in the U.S.? Largely, this ban on new visas continues the status quo as U.S. consulates around the world continue to be closed and are not currently issuing new visas.

This will have an impact on those who are currently outside the U.S. and waiting for the consulates to reopen so that they can apply for visas, and those individuals will likely have to wait until next year to apply for their visas.? There are some limited exceptions to this rule for those who work in national security, health care or medical research directly related to Covid-19, or those who work in the food supply chain.

The order contains additional instructions to the secretaries of Homeland Security and Labor to investigate regulatory options to ensure that H-1B petitions and employment-based green card applications do not negatively impact U.S. workers.? We do not have any indication at this point as to what this would look like or when we can expect to see proposed regulations.

For further information please contact your Graham Adair attorney.

This morning, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the DACA program could not be immediately rescinded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, shields 1.7 million individuals brought to the United States as children from deportation proceedings and grants them temporary work authorization. It does not provide them a path to any kind of permanent status in the United States.

The Court’s decision leaves room for DHS to potentially revoke DACA by demonstrating how it would avoid harming those who have relied on DACA protections against deportation and the ability to work legally. President Trump had said previously that he would develop a different program for these individuals. Nonetheless, this could take several months and at this time it is unclear whether this effort will be undertaken.

For the time being, employers can count on maintaining employment for DACA beneficiaries.

If you have any questions, contact your Graham Adair representative.

This morning, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the DACA program could not be immediately rescinded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, shields 1.7 million individuals brought to the United States as children from deportation proceedings and grants them temporary work authorization. It does not provide them a path to any kind of permanent status in the United States.

The Court’s decision leaves room for DHS to potentially revoke DACA by demonstrating how it would avoid harming those who have relied on DACA protections against deportation and the ability to work legally. President Trump had said previously that he would develop a different program for these individuals. Nonetheless, this could take several months and at this time it is unclear whether this effort will be undertaken.

For the time being, employers can count on maintaining employment for DACA beneficiaries.

If you have any questions, contact your Graham Adair representative.

On May 29, 2020, USCIS announced that the temporary suspension on premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 employment-based immigrant petitions—such as EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 petitions, and eligible Form I-129 nonimmigrant worker petitions—such as H-1B, O-1, TN, L-1, and E-3 petitions, will be lifted in phases during June 2020.

Back on March 20, 2020, USCIS had temporarily suspended new premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 and Form I-129 petitions. As a result of the suspension, Form I-140 and Form I-129 petitions (normally eligible for premium processing) could only be filed with regular processing from the date of suspension. Regular processing entails a much lengthier processing time of several months, as opposed to the 15-day processing time that premium processing provides.

Based on the May 29, 2020 announcement, USCIS will resume accepting premium processing requests (Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service) for eligible petitions in the following phases in June 2020:

Phase 1 (June 1, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Eligible Form I-140 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 petitions on/after this date.

Phase 2 (June 8, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Certain Pending I-129 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for pending cap-exempt Form I-129 H-1B petitions filed prior to June 8, 2020.

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all other eligible, Form I-129 non-H-1B petitions (such as O-1, TN, L-1, E-1, and E-2) filed prior to June 8, 2020.

Phase 3 (June 15, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Certain New/Recent Cap-Exempt H-1B Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for certain, cap-exempt H-1B petitions not filed prior to June 8, 2020, which includes premium processing requests for cap-exempt H-1B petitions due to cap-exempt employer; beneficiary is cap-exempt due to qualifying cap-exempt institution, entity or organization; or the beneficiary is cap-exempt under INA section 214(l) based on a Conrad/IGA waiver.

Phase 4 (June 22, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Cap-subject H-1B Petitions and All Other Form I-129 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for H-1B cap-subject petitions (includes cap-subject H-1B petitions that were selected in the registration lottery in March 2020).

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all other Form I-129 petitions that are eligible for premium processing.

For any pending or new Form I-140 or Form I-129 petition, the above filing date restrictions must be considered for any premium processing request as USCIS will reject a premium processing request that is not timely made within the above constraints.

Graham Adair will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates here as they become available. If you have any questions, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

USCIS plans to reopen certain offices and resume non-emergency services on Thursday, June 4, 2020. The agency temporarily closed offices and suspended in-person services on March 18^th to slow the spread of COVID-19.

New safety measures will be implemented once offices reopen, including requiring visitors to wear facial coverings when entering buildings, providing hand sanitizer at entry points, and limiting early visitor arrival to no more than 15 minutes before a scheduled appointment. The agency asks that applicants not attend scheduled interviews if they are ill, but rather reschedule appointments per the instructions on the appointment notice. Applicants will not be penalized for rescheduling an appointment due to illness.

USCIS specified the following plans:

USCIS will send notices to applicants with previously scheduled appointments and interviews, and will automatically reschedule necessary Application Support Center appointments that were canceled by issuing a new appointment letter in the mail. This includes biometrics appointments and interviews for Adjustment of Status.

The agency will reschedule postponed naturalization ceremonies. Naturalization ceremonies will be shortened to limit exposure and visitors permitted to attend ceremonies will be limited.

Asylum interviews that were canceled due to temporary office closure will be rescheduled and will be video-facilitated to maintain social distancing.

If you have any questions about the status of your canceled interview or appointment, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

CDC extends and amends order temporarily suspending travel of certain foreign nationals from Canada and Mexico.

On May 20, 2020, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended the temporary suspension of certain foreign nationals traveling to the United States through Canada and Mexico.

The CDC Director first ordered the temporary suspension for 30 days in March and extended the order for another 30 days in April to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The orders have not applied to US Citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members, military personnel and their immediate family members, foreign nationals who hold valid travel documents and arrive at a port of entry, or foreign nationals who arrive at a port of entry from countries in the visa waiver program who are not otherwise subject to travel restrictions. The May 20^th extension expands the order’s reach to apply to land and coastal ports of entry and border patrol stations.

The order is extended for another 30 days until the CDC Director determines that the suspension is no longer needed to protect the nation’s public health.

On March 20th, DHS deferred the physical examination requirement of work authorization documents for Form I-9.  This allowed employers to inspect Section 2 documents via video link, fax, or email, as long as specific notation is entered in the “Additional Information” field on Section 2.  You can find our news alert on the initial guidance here.

This flexibility was scheduled to end on May 19th. However, due to continued precautions related to COVID-19, DHS extended this flexibility for another 30 days or until June 18th.

If you have any questions on how to complete the Form I-9 during these times, please contact your Graham Adair representative.